Cover Story: From Silver Fillings to Silver Screen

DentaltownUK Editor Dr Mike Gow talks with Dr Shalin Kapoor about his life and career, and why he took a break from dentistry to study filmmaking

Dr Mike Gow: Please introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about your background.

Dr Shalin Kapoor: My name is Shalin Kapoor and if I had to describe myself to someone, I would say I am a ‘dreamer’ who takes every day as it comes and who never takes himself too seriously. I was born in East Africa and grew up in West London. I went to a local comprehensive school in Hounslow, where if you even looked at someone in the wrong way you’d have had your face rearranged. Back then, bullying was part of everyday life and it wasn’t just the students who were the problem.

My school was more renowned for its gang violence, drugs and teenage pregnancies than its academic accolades. I only managed to survive there unscathed by doing the bigger boys’ homework; in return, they took me under their wing and protected me. I didn’t come from a privileged or particularly educated background.

I did part-time jobs at Heathrow duty-free, Marks & Spencer and even McDonald’s during my teenage years, which taught me the value of hard work. My brother and I were the first ones to go to university in our family.

My parents worked long hours to support us, and I owe them a lot. They made a lot of sacrifices for us.

MG: Where and when did you study dentistry?

SK: I began dental school in 1990. This was the first year of the new five-year curriculum. As I entered the grounds of Guy’s Hospital I immediately felt at home. Even going back now after many years, it continues to feel like home with many of my original teachers still travelling up and down the infamous elevators. I seemed to flourish at Guys and even managed to win some prizes. It was a very nurturing and supportive environment.

The university also introduced the intercalated BSc during my time there and I was lucky be one of the first to be selected for it. I completed the degree in ‘biochemistry and oral biology’ and achieved a first class honours.

Guys not only gave me a life I could have only have dreamed of—it also gave me the woman of my dreams, my Sushma. We spent many a romantic day in front of an orange bunsen flame in the Prosthetic lab on Floor 21, waxing up dentures. I knew she was going to be my life partner and soulmate, and before the ink could dry on our BDS certificates we were married.

MG: How romantic! What did you do careerwise after graduation?

SK: I joined the oral and maxillofacial surgery unit at the Royal London Hospital as a house officer. I then moved over to general practice and completed my vocational training in Plumstead. I was then an associate dentist for a few years before we opened our first practice in Hounslow. We quickly grew our list from 500 patients in the first few months to more than 20,000 patients over the period of ownership, purely through word-of-mouth recommendations alone and no marketing.

This was followed by the opening of a few more practices over the years. Many of them were squat practices that had won several awards for their design and innovation.

We never employed designers or architects for any of our practices, because we wanted them to be totally individual and unique and stick out from the crowd.

I absolutely love designing practices and always include some unique features in all of them. For example, our practice in Brentford, West London, had a movie theatre room with surround sound and a massaging chair for in-house whitening.

MG: That sounds amazing! So, what are you doing now?

SK: After 16 years of rewarding practice ownership, we took the decision to sell all of the remaining practices and take a break to explore other interests.

I fulfilled a longtime ambition and joined the Met Film School at the iconic Ealing Film Studios and completed a year-long course in filmmaking. I cannot describe how much I enjoyed the course. It awoke some of the more creative parts of my brain that had remained dormant for years.

During my time at film schooI I completed a student short movie that was ‘officially selected’ at several international film festivals and was screened at the Everyman Cinema in Esher. All the actors were either family members or dental colleagues.

I am currently working on a feature-length movie based on a script I have been penning for the past 8 years.

MG: We look forward to seeing it! You also have an interest in photography.

SK: Yes, I acquired a professional photographic camera for the first time only around 4 years ago when there was a clearance sale at my local John Lewis, and it hasn't left my side since. I have an extensive catalogue of photos that I’ve taken around the world, some of which can be seen on my website.

My macro photography of ‘dental tools’ is currently featuring on the front covers of the latest series of the BDJ and will be on a total of 11 cover issues of this internationally acclaimed publication. Of course, I also provided the cover images for the summer and September issues of DentaltownUK!

I am also involved in practice design, photography and videography for dentists, which is keeping me more busy than I anticipated.

MG: Do you think you will make a move back to dentistry at any point?

SK: Yes, I do miss practice ownership however and I am planning a new state of the art specialist private practice next year.

MG: What are your thoughts about NHS dentistry?

SK: I personally owe the NHS a great deal, but the system needs urgent and radical change. I have been an almost exclusive NHS dental practitioner since qualification, and I’ve seen many changes in the system throughout my career.

I have worked in some high-needs areas, rehabilitated many neglected dentitions and always made sure my team and I had the best materials, the best equipment and the best environment to work in. Unfortunately, I don’t think the UDA system is fair and there are a lot of problems with the way it works. It is fundamentally flawed and doesn’t reward high-quality treatments.

The UDA values are so wide ranging across practices, which is unjust as it was based on treatments pre-2006.

I began to find it more difficult to maintain the highest quality of dentistry using the best materials whilst keeping an eye on the ever-increasing costs of running an almost exclusive NHS practice. I do believe that future generations of dentists will look at this system in disbelief.

MG: Do you have any tips for readers on how to manage stress in dentistry?

SK: Stress and dentistry? It's like bread and butter, right? It doesn’t have to be.

Now, I don’t want to sound like a preacher and give you a lecture on how you should lead your life. I am aware that everybody is different and will have different ways of coping with stress, but I will tell you what strategies personally worked for me and you can take what you want from it.

For me, the true key to stress management is self-management. Arthur Schopenhauer said, ‘It is difficult to find happiness in oneself, but it is impossible to find it anywhere else’.

Many courses believe that stress arises from external factors, environments and situations. We need to grasp the concept that peace and happiness is a state of mind.

Internal agitations, not external disturbances, create stresses. For us as dentists our external factors will always be there, and for example will likely include:

1. The GDC.
2. The NHS.
3. The CQC.
4. Meeting patient expectations
5. and managing patient complaints.
6. Litigation.

Accept the fact that these factors will be ever-present, and the list may grow as time passes. There is no point constantly moaning about them and it is futile to waste your life continually complaining about them. This will only affect your mental and physical well-being long term. You either choose to accept these factors will always be there or you leave the profession. It’s as simple as that.

Changes, challenges and conflicts are all part of the world. You must look at them as a sportsperson views a challenging opponent. There will be times when you have a bad day and want to give up. That's normal. That happens in most careers. But just remember how hard you worked to get to where you are. The sacrifices you made. The sacrifices your parents made.

None of these external factors should be allowed to scare you from providing the best care you can to your patients.

Mistakes can and will happen to all of us. At the end of the day, we are just human, and no human is perfect. In the grand scheme of things, nothing is that important.

Sometimes life experiences give you some perspective. Late last year, my wife and I were on a way to dental course and were sitting on the same train carriage with a terrorist and his lethal bomb that was meant to kill and maim innocent people.

Luckily, the device at Parsons Green station failed to detonate properly, or many people would have died or been seriously injured. Every day for us is a bonus day.

MG: What an insightful answer! What advice would you give to young dentists?

SK: Never be in a hurry to get to the top so quickly. Forget what your peers are doing. Forget how much they are making or how many accolades they are receiving. Concentrate on yourself. Slow and easy wins the race. Experience takes time; it doesn’t come overnight. The problem of clambering relentlessly to the top without experience is that there is a risk you can fall and get yourself into serious trouble. Only experience can act as your safely net.

‘Burnout’ is becoming an increasing problem in dentistry. I’ve seen many fellow dentists my age suffer with this. It is not unique to NHS dentists; I’ve seen it in those working in exclusive West End private practices, too. Some are working five or six days a week, long hours, in a claustrophobic room with little or no breaks. Dentistry involves a lot of precision work and concentration, and working these sorts of hours is definitely not healthy long term.

You’ll get a bigger bank balance working more hours, but that will be at the expense of your health and well-being in the future and valuable time missed with the family—particularly if you have children.

In the West, we’ll always push our finances to their limits, no matter how much we earn. We’ll buy things like cars and houses that are just within or just outside our affordability range. Material objects can be fun, but make sure you’re not killing yourself just to keep up with the Joneses. Spend far less than you earn.

It’s hard to do, I know, but keep your debts down. Why do you need to see so much of the world so early? Why do you need to own that supercar so quickly? Leave some pleasures till later. Wait and dream a little longer. I always find the fun is waiting for things. The excitement always starts to diminish once you acquire objects, and in most cases you immediately begin to look for the next more expensive acquisition.

There is no end once you join this insatiable existence. Don’t be extravagant based on potential future earnings; you never know what obstacles or change in circumstances can occur at any point.

Having numerous material objects and possessions doesn’t necessarily equate to success! If you are working extra-long hours to keep up the payments on unnecessary luxury items, then you have basically signed off a life sentence to keep working at this pace indefinitely.

A. Parthasarathy said: ‘Desires render a person dependent on the world. The more the desires, the more the dependence. A mind infested with numerous desires will need abundant material wealth to keep them content, but as you drop your desires, the need for material wealth diminishes’.

For me, investing in the intangible such as relationships and experiences are far more important. Years ago, my wife and I made a pact that we would work only 2–3 days a week. We could have earned double what we did over the years, but we believed that time off was more important. You’ll never get that time back, especially if you have growing kids. We were fortunate enough to have kept this up our whole practicing life, and it was probably one of the most sensible decisions we ever made.

Most importantly, stop comparing yourself to others. Once we accept that there will always be someone better looking, wealthier, more charming, more intelligent, fitter, etc., we become liberated and we are free to be who we really are. Everybody is unique and that's the beautiful thing about humans. If everybody was the same, how boring would this world be? When you start comparing, ill feelings such as jealousy, anger and resentment can develop.

This applies especially to social media. If you develop any of the above negative emotions when viewing posts, it is time to re-evaluate your relationship with social media and maybe deactivate your account until you’re able to convince yourself that an individual’s virtual life bears little resemblance to their real life. Few people publish the negative things that happen in their lives.

Treat social media as entertainment and a laugh and never take it too seriously. By all means, look up to people and learn from them, but don’t lose your identity.

I love this quote from Judy Garland: ‘Be a first-rate version of yourself rather than a second-rate version of someone else’.

MG: How do you see dentistry in 10 years?

SK: The biggest change I believe will be in NHS dentistry. Whether we like it or not, we’re not a priority when it comes to health provision. With no significant money going toward NHS dentistry, a new contract will attempt to increase access and improve attendance figures without a significant increase in funding. Clauses may be introduced into contracts that state a practice will need to increase the number of new patients by a stated amount yearly to retain the contract value. I also believe time-limited contracts will be introduced, which will significantly affect or wipe out practice goodwill values.

If this happens, I believe more practices will give up the contract and there will be a rise in NHS practices converting to totally private practices. Increasing numbers of NHS Access Centres will probably be set up to treat emergency cases and less complex treatments.

No one knows for certain what the future holds, but so long as you are skilled, you should have no problems. The future certainly looks bright, especially with all the new digital developments and new treatments that are continually being introduced. It's going to be exciting times for sure with lots of new opportunities, so enjoy the journey.

MG: Thank you for an excellent and fascinating interview, Shalin.